


Hats and Bows

by SilyaBeeodess



Series: Clocks and Spirits [5]
Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:47:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26491384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilyaBeeodess/pseuds/SilyaBeeodess
Summary: When help arrives, Hat Kid is forced to reveal the disastrous reason she hasn't come home yet.
Series: Clocks and Spirits [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1613260
Comments: 3
Kudos: 30





	Hats and Bows

It was hard to tell how much of the pressure building in her chest was from excitement or nerves as she saw the little ship drop out of horospeed and glide towards her own. Thankfully, she’d managed to power the hanger in advance, and had opened it the moment the other vessel had blinked on her monitors. Wringing her hands, the girl watched as it moved out of view and listened quietly to the muffled, mechanical clacks that echoed around her as it docked onboard.

Hat Kid spun in her seat, ready to meet her guest. Even as she walked off the main deck, the warm, fresh smell of baked treats wafted down to her from the kitchen. Cooking Cat had already left—she said she needed to run some errands since she was also going on the same cruise the young alien was preparing for—but she clearly left some goodies aside to help welcome her friend. Good: Hat Kid figured she’d need as much help as possible to soften the blow of the task ahead.

Stepping into the hanger from the storage room, she came face-to-face with the second ship. Besides that, other than a workbench and some shelves for tools, the squared-off space was otherwise empty. Long undisturbed dust had taken to the air upon the light swoop’s arrival. It rumbled as its engines were shut off and the small, twin, side boosters that helped slow its entry out of horospeed swiveled in place and began to cool. 

Soon enough the hatch swung open and out popped a familiar head full of springy locks pulled back in a loose, but neat fashion with a signature bow. The dark-skinned figure before her measured slightly above her own height, dressed in vibrant shades of green and blue. Amethyst eyes greeted her in a warm and friendly way.

“Still flying those small fries?” Hat Kid pointed at the light swoop teasingly as the other child walked over to her.

“Well, not all of us are prodigies,” came the snarky reply, all while a grin never left her face, “but it looks like you still need my help.”

Hat Kid bounced a little on her feet. The two friends ran to each other in an eager hug. “I missed you, Bow!” she exclaimed. The time she’d been away from her homeworld was long enough. It felt even longer when it came to a person she grew up alongside of so closely.

“I missed you too!” came the reply. Bow Kid drew back to hold her by the shoulders in a mock-stern manner, “Don’t go on anymore missions without me, ok? Clockwork’s boring without you around.”

The two girls were clocksmiths—in-training, at least. Clocksmiths had an integral job on their planet to guard Time Pieces, determine who in their society could use them, and correct anomalies across the galaxy. They were masters of temporal magic. Being a clocksmith was considered a great duty and many in their ranks had the job passed on throughout their families. Kids like them were trained since before they could remember to take on that role.

The magical prowess was, sadly, far above their own abilities for now; however, both girls were exceptionally skilled in their own ways despite their age. Hat Kid was a great pilot, capable of even out-flying their seniors by a few years in simulations. Bow Kid had a knack for tinkering, setting her on more of an engineering track. In their courses, the two worked so well off of each other that it seemed inevitable that they would one day join the same crew. That day now seemed to have come much earlier than either of them could’ve dreamed.

They withdrew from each other. Bow nodded to her in a determined way before sidestepping around to take the lead back to the main sections of the ship. “Well, show me what the problem is! You can tell me all about your adventures when we get to work.”

Hat Kid cringed inside. This was the part she’d been dreading about her friend’s arrival. She’d been struggling to think of a way to explain herself since she’d ask for her to come, under the pretense that the ship was damaged. Even now, her words tangled in her mouth. “I think it’s gonna be a lot trickier than what you know, Bow…” 

“What? Come on, whatever you broke, I think I can handle it.” Her smile remained confident until she looked back to see the other alien knotting the hem of her purple tunic anxiously. Hat Kid was always pretty brave, but didn’t handle things taking a wrong turn as well as she did. She reassured her, “If it’s that serious, no one’s gonna know if we fix it.” 

Of course, she still didn’t know the full gravity of the situation either, not until Hat Kid at last stiffened her upper lip and guided her to the main deck. For a long while, they were silent as they stepped over to the large monitor next to the vault, staring at its jarring readings. Despite all of Hat Kid’s work thus far, the number that flashed on the screen was still short—although even _one_ number too low would’ve been plenty enough cause for alarm. 

It was an agonizingly long time before Bow Kid spoke, continuing to stare myopically at the screen. Maybe it was the other’s imagination, but her voice seemed to come out cracked, “I think I see the problem.”

Then came the accusatory glance, the kind that begged in a panicked way, _What did you do?!_

Hat Kid immediately rose to her own defense, balling her fists in front of her out of stress, “It wasn’t my fault! One of the Earthlings broke the hatch and sent me and all the Time Pieces flying through space! They got scattered all over the planet!”

Of course, a small part of it was really her fault though. She should’ve made sure that the vault was sealed properly, then there never would’ve been a chance for them to soar out of the ship with her. She was still kicking herself for it…

After getting over her initial shock, blinking the immediate dread away, Bow Kid crossed her arms over her chest and took a deep breath. “This actually makes more sense on why you haven’t come home yet,” she murmured to herself. Then she gave her friend a sad, serious look, “You can’t tell the Fellowship _anything_ about this.”

“I know!”

All clocksmiths worked under the Clockwork Fellowship. By all means, Hat Kid should have told them. It was the right thing to do and they would’ve sent people more equipped to handle this sort of thing than she was. It was her _job_ to tell them, in order to avoid the calamities that she’d thus far barely managed to disperse on her own. However, the punishment for her mistake scared her. It would prove to her superiors that she wasn’t capable of fulfilling her duty. She might be let go from the organization completely. Worse still, they might take away her ship…

“I know…” she repeated, much more mournfully. She cradled her face in her hands and leaned back against the nearby railing.

Bow Kid reclined at her side as they fell into an awkward silence yet again, with only the thrum of the ship’s systems and Rumbi’s electronic hums as he worked below to make up any background noise. She stared at the other girl for a long while, then looked back at the monitor, then out the viewport to the backwater world looming just behind them. 

Bow motorboated with a huff, then said, “I guess the people on this world are more advanced than anyone from home knew.”

“They are,” Hat Kid mumbled, “but that’s not just why they can go into space now. The gravity’s messed up in places, and the atmosphere’s still breathable even this far out.”

“But nothing that needs fixing?”

She thought about it, “I don’t think so. I don’t know what it was like a long time ago, but I think the planet’s fine as it is now.”

More than fine: It was thriving. Maybe it was because of the strong, magical energies that flowed through it, but even if the rules of the planet didn’t make much sense at times, it was stable enough to host a wide range of lifeforms. It was a beautiful world, and she’d grown to love it the way it was.

“They let’s try to keep it that way.” Hat Kid glanced at her friend with a raised brow to see that the determined grin had returned to her face. Bow Kid continued as she grabbed the former by the hands, “If we get all of your other Time Pieces back, everyone down there will be safe and we can go home like nothing happened. So no need to worry anymore, ok?”

Hat Kid felt terrible for dragging her friend into this mess. If they got caught, their superiors could find her just as guilty. She had to know that. _Leave it to Bow to still put on a smile though,_ she thought to herself bittersweetly. She felt lucky that she was able to count on her so much.

“Ok… thank you.”


End file.
